Things Dealers tell Customers

Anyone who has bad hangovers either has a drinking problem or hasn't learned how to drink responsibly.

What, you were never young and stupid? Though I have to agree, an employee showing up too hungover to work should be sent home, the first time. Fired the second. I've worked with alcoholics, and the absentee rate is alarming.


1911fan

Everyone gets one chance to suffer. After that, intelligent people learn to modify their behavior.

The place I worked had a security and medical building, and anyone who came in stinking of the night before was taken there for a breathalyzer exam.

The college program my wife is in does not allow attendees to show up unshowered, wrinkled, unshaven, drunk, hungover, smelling like pot or alcohol, or inappropriately dressed. You'd think, at some level, people would understand these without having to be sent home at least once.



1911fan

I once asked a business owner friend of mine if he drug tested his employees. He said that at the salary level of most of his people, he'd never be able to find anyone who was drug free, so he put up with the pot smokers.

My wife and I own a business, and have had people come in looking for employment. My favorite was a guy who drove up to the front door at 10:00 in the morning, parked crooked, got out holding a half full tall tavern style beer glass and not wearing a shirt. He put the beer down on the roof, reached into the back seat and grabbed a Tshirt and put it on, then walked in the door.

"Uh.yeah.. I'm good at bikes so like are y'all hiring?"

Politely said "no, thanks were all set for staff at this time".

He walked outside, took off the shirt and tossed it through the window, grabbed his glass and took a gulp for the road, then headed on his way.

Accepting the above is why, my guess, many businesses fail... I see horrible customer service daily. I am amazed employees bring that, and employers accept it.

Seatbelt stop kit. You know that little plastic button on your seatbelt that stops the buckle from sliding all the way to the bottom? Dealership wanted $35.00 for a new one when mine gave out.

Around here they would have insisted on selling a new seat belt. Can't f- with safety systems. Good thing those buttons are 2 for $7 at Advance Auto Parts.

Overheard this at the counter at the Petco store one day:"I don't care if you are hungover, self inflicted wounds are no excuse, get it together."

I worked at a dealership while going to skool, had a guy call.

Him, " Ya I need a chain and sprocket set for my bike."

Me, "What type of bike mate?"

Him, " It's Red?"

Me, " OK, they will be here next week."

Him, "OK."

Then he hung up....

This waz the old days when stuff waz in stock so when he did show up we had them....after I went outside and saw his Red Honda XL.

Yeah , the good old days. Now you can't even pick up a sparkplug at the dealer.:huh

I have yet to determine what they have in the stockroom at the local dealer, I can see shelves full of parts boxres back there but anything I need is special order.... Even simple things like valve shims, air filters, oil filters, gaskets, o-rings...

How the hell do they service bikes without these things in stock????

I work at a Kawasaki dealer....had a gal call up the other day and tell me she needed "the gasket" for her four wheeler. "The gasket? Which gasket?" I asked. "Uhhh.....shit....uhhh I guess the one of the drive shaft? Yeah, the drive shaft." "Front or rear drive shaft, inside or outside gasket?" Long pause..."I'll have my husband bring it in."

We got voted the best motorcycle shop in East Texas couple weeks ago too. The amount of stupidity that walks though the door on a daily basis blows my mind though!

Buying my new Tenere this past Saturday.

"I'm giving you a helluva deal here! About the only thing I can add here, at this point, is a can of creamed corn..."

Never did get the creamed corn, which I'd have enjoyed, but I did get a very good deal on the new bike. :)

A bit later, while doing the delivery walk-around, he mentioned all these things the shop did to prep the bike. Naturally I asked if they lubed the spokes.

I did this with a straight face.

He responded by saying "If that's part of the normal prep, I can assure you it was done!"

Now, in fairness, while this was all fun, the saleman and I have a good relationship, so I did let him off the hook on the lubed spokes point...

We both had a couple good chuckles when the guy from the shop comes back to report, quite loudly, on my FJR as a trade and the "work" it would need. Apparently when you put 3000 miles on a front PR2, it only has about 20% life left in it...at least according to the doink from service...

Salesman turned to me, equally as loud, and said "Looked like it had a hell of a lot more life left in it than that to me..." The funny thing is the rear PR2 was just starting to flatten along the centerline...which their "inspection" failed to turn up...LOL

I suspect it involves them being petty about the fact that you're not using their service department to perform the work, so they're going to get back at you by making you wait. It is hard to even imagine them being so poorly mismanaged as to not have basic parts for their service folks to use and remain in business long. It is sort of funny, but what many dealers seem to fail to realize is that if the customer is going to have to order something anyway, he will likely do it online and skip the markup. Yet another way brick and mortar stores seemingly willingly shoot themselves in the foot.

Dealer here wanted to charge me $120 for the same crappy maintenance type battery that failed within a couple of years. I got a much better maintenance free AGM battery for $65 shipped to my door. I realize the dealer needs to make a reasonable amount but seriously, they could buy the battery I did at retail, mark it up $20-25 and sell them all day long vs having excessively marked up stock junk clogging the shelves. Of course that ignores the fact they can get them wholesale and make even more. Many people are willing to pay a premium to have the item same day, myself included.

I would gladly pay their 25% markup all day long if they would have the common parts I need when I need them, there is no reason in the world for me to "special order" through them for the parts I need.

I can get them cheaper and faster delivered to my house....

When I needed a battery for my 990, the one the dealer had was $249! Honda had the same Yuasa in stock, minus the KTM logo, for $139. I found one online for, IIRC, $115 delivered. I bought the Honda one because it was in stock, and told my dealer about the online place I'd found them, and also that they had a raft of Yuasa batteries at very low prices. Figured they could save money, sell batteries for less than anyone else in town, and still make a profit. Nope. "Oh, we don't do that. If it's outside of our regular suppliers we won't deal with them." Ummm, ok?
This is the same dealer that took a year to get me a new visor for the XD3 they sold me. I found one and forgot I had one still on order, until they called me. The summer after I ordered it. A year later.

1911fan

How do you get 3k out of a PR@??? Mine were bald edge to edge in 2750!!!

(Boy I had a lot of fun in NC)

Only ordered form a dealer once, so far.
Let's say it was a rather unpleasant affair.

I needed to replace the swingarm and linkage bearings and bushings, a new chain slider and some shims for my 650GS,
I got the bearings locally, probably waaaay cheaper than what BMW would've billed me,
however, I'd ordered everything else from a dealer.


Of course, they've had nothing in stock, as expected.
First of all it took over a week for the parts to arrive, surprise, surprise, although I'd clearly stated I needed the bushings,
They'd ordered a couple of bearings (it wasn't even the right number of bearings, they forgot nearly half of them ).

Then they'd been a bit confused about which parts they needed, so they went ahead and asked me to go on their computer in their store to look up the part numbers in the fiche :huh

Well, whatever, I needed those parts.
Of course, two of the bushings were not available anymore, luckily another one was nearly the same size, so I'd just ordered 2 more of those and had them turned down by a friend on his lathe. After I finally got them.

I mean, I did get them, after all, they'd sad they'd order them overnight.
I called 4 days later only to be told they'll be in tomorrow.
Some days later, another call they promised the parts would already sit on the counter and wait for me to pick them up. Only to be called back a couple minutes later and be told that they are still in the shiping compartment.

Long short story, I finally got the parts a good 4 weeks after I'd initially placed the order.


Never again am I gonna visit them.







I've also made positive experiences, though, in a small, independent MC garage where the owner is the only mechanic, awesome guy.
He got me the tire I needed within a day, made me a good deal including mounting&balancing and even installed it right when I brought the wheel in,
even though I could've easily waited a couple days, which he knew.